Category: Covid-19

A single dose of Evusheld given to non-hospitalised, unvaccinated patients experiencing mild to moderate COVID-19 led to a significant reduction in progression to more severe disease (i.e., hospitalisation) and mortality compared to those given placebo. These were the key findings from the the TACKLE study by a group of UK and US researchers.

Evusheld contains the two monoclonal antibodies, tixagevimab and cilgavimab, which simultaneously bind to distinct, non-overlapping epitopes on the spike protein receptor binding domain and are therefore able to neutralise COVID-19. It is administered as a single intra-muscular dose and in March 2022, the EMA granted a marketing authorisation for Evusheld for the prevention of COVID-19 in adults and adolescents from 12 years of age weighing at least 40kg before potential exposure to the virus.

The combination of monoclonal antibodies has been examined in TACKLE, which is an ongoing, Phase III randomised, double-blind trial conducted in 95 sites across the USA, Latin America, Europe and Japan. Included patients are adults (18 years and over) with a documented, laboratory confirmed PCR or antigen test, COVID-19 infection, at least 3 days before enrolment in the trial. An additional entry requirement is a score of > 1 but less than 4 on the World Health Organization (WHO) Clinical progression Scale.

For the study, all eligible participants were randomised 1:1 to a single dose of Evusheld (600mg, which consists of two consecutive doses of 300mg of each) or saline solution (which served as the placebo) on the first day of the trial. The primary outcome of the study was a composite endpoint of either severe COVID-19, defined by either the presence of pneumonia, hypoxaemia plus a WHO scale score of 5 and higher or all-cause mortality.

Single dose of Evusheld and COVID-19 outcomes

A total of 903 participants with mean age of 46.1 years (50% female) were enrolled and randomised to evusheld (452) or placebo. Just over half (52%) of participants were of Hispanic or Latino ethnicity with 62% being White and 4% Black or African American. A total of 89% of the entire cohort had at least one or more risk factors for severe COVID-19 including a body mass index > 30 (43%), hypertension (28%), current smokers (40%) and diabetes (12%).

The primary endpoint (severe COVID-19 or death) occurred in 4% of those receiving a single dose of Evusheld and in 9% of those given a placebo and this difference was significant (absolute risk reduction = 4.5%, 95% CI 1.1 8.0, p < 0.0001).

In terms of safety, adverse effects occurred in 29% of those given Evusheld and 36% of those using placebo and most were deemed to be of mild or moderate severity.

The authors concluded that a single dose of Evusheld was associated with a statistical and clinically meaningful reduction in both progression to more severe COVID-19 and death compared with placebo among unvaccinated adult patients.

CitationMontgomery H et al. Efficacy and safety of intramuscular administration of tixagevimabcilgavimab for early outpatient treatment of COVID-19 (TACKLE): a phase 3, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial Lancet Respir Med 2022

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Single dose of Evusheld reduces progression of COVID-19 and mortality - Hospital Healthcare Europe

Brain Capital conceptualizes brain health (e.g., the lack of mental illness and neurodegenerative disease) and brain skills (e.g., education) as essential to the knowledge economy. This concept is based on the assumption that our brains are our greatest asset and provides a framework to define brain issues, quantify them, and track them. Brain Capital can be driven into policies and investments

COVID-19 has had enormous negative effects on individual, societal, and worldwide Brain Capital. We are in the infancy stages of understanding COVID-19s short- and long-term effects on the brain. However, what we do know is alarming. While COVID-19 is mainly a respiratory illness, long-COVID-19 is increasingly being revealed as a neuropsychiatric disorder. In other words, long-COVID-19 is all about the brain. An estimated 22-32 percent of patients who recover from COVID-19 experience brain fog and cognitive challenges as part of their experience of long COVID-19. Other research suggests that one-third of COVID-19 sufferers will have a new onset or recurrent psychiatric problem (often depression or anxiety) in the ensuing year.Additionally, it is not just people with severe COVID-19 who are affected. Studies have found that people across all stages of COVID-19, including those who were and were not hospitalized, have experienced challenges with attention, memory, and executive functioning. From a clinical perspective, we know that several factors can lead to post-COVID-19 cognitive problems and mental disorders, including pre-existing illnesses, damage from the virus itself, neuroinflammation, and vascular damage. However, further research is needed to understand the full mechanisms and implications of COVID-19 on the brain.

This decline in brain healthand thus of Brain Capitalfrom COVID-19 has led to and will continue to lead to negative economic and societal implications. With colleagues at the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Developments (OECD) New Approaches to Economic Challenges Unit (NAEC), we have shownvia our Neuroscience-inspired Policy Initiativethat Brain Capital drives economic empowerment, brain performance, social resilience, and emotional connection. Brain Capital is the underpinnings of economic growth and prosperity. It postulates that our brains are our greatest assets, and if we strategically invest in Brain Capital, the payoff is our countrys future, economy, innovation, wellbeing, and even democratic strength.

COVID-19 has additionally amplified a pre-existing mental health crisis across the world further harming Brain Capital. According to a recent scientific brief by the World Health Organization, in the first year of COVID-19, global prevalence of anxiety and depression increased by 25 percent. Multiple factors, including social isolation, loneliness, grief, financial worries, and more, converged during COVID-19 to cause unprecedented stress and mental health challenges and revealed existing health inequities. Further, youth have been disproportionately affected. Youth mental health issues were increasing well before the pandemic, but COVID-19 magnified and perpetuated these challenges. This led the United States Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, to issue a surgeon general advisory on the urgent need to address the nations youth mental health crisis. Advisories are reserved for significant public health challenges and have previously included advisories on opiates and smoking. The recent surgeon generals advisory calls for increased investment and immediate responses to prevent youth mental health from becoming a second pandemic.

We urgently need innovation to address COVID-19s effects on Brain Capital.

Promoting and investing in youth Brain Capital is critical to building a resilient future. This includes not only addressing youth mental health, but also working to promote education and training of young people, which has suffered greatly during the COVID-19 era. According to a recent report by the International Labour Organization, 65 percent of young people reported having learned less since the beginning of the pandemic. Additionally, 38 percent of young people reported being uncertain of their future career prospects. If the education and training of young people are left unaddressed, this will perpetuate the mental health crisis and cause negative effects on Brain Capital for years to come. Indeed, it will lead to a generation lost from COVID-19 related educational disruptions, which could result in this generation losing $17 trillion in lifetime wages and impacting the future United States economy.

Addressing and reimagining workforce participation in the United States in the wake of COVID-19 is also critical to promoting Brain Capital. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, over 47 million Americans voluntarily quit their jobs in 2021, spurred by COVID-19, ushering in the Great Resignation. Among workers who quit their job in 2021, the majority reported low pay, no opportunities for advancement, and feeling disrespected as the main reasons for leaving. These factors were especially felt by the low-income workforce. We must redesign and reimagine workforce participation. There is an urgent need for jobs that require brain and socio-emotional skills (e.g., the brain skills component of Brain Capital) but that do not necessarily require a college education. This would provide an important means to involve and eventually transition the low-skilled, low-income workforce into the labor markets of the future and into better quality jobsenhancing individual and collective Brain Capital. Such initiatives particularly hold promise for regions with high rates of deep desperation and pre-mature death and may help address lack of hope and promote wellbeing and increased life expectancy. We must invest in brains to combat Americas crisis of despair.

We urgently need innovation to address COVID-19s effects on Brain Capital. These innovations must span clinical care, neuroscience research, youth mental health, education, workforce participation, and more. To recover from the economic implications of COVID-19, we must prioritize and invest in the brain with a coordinated approach across sectors of government, civil society, and industry. Indeed, Brain Capital is the road to recovery and is necessary to build a more resilient future.

*Note: This article was adapted from a presentation of Eric Lenze, Professor and Incoming Chair of Psychiatry at Washington University of St Louis, to the U.S Congressional Neuroscience Caucus on Wednesday, May 18, 2022.

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The economic and societal effects of COVID-19 on our brains - Brookings Institution

The UKs National Health Service (NHS) has warned the public about a spate of fake messages, sent out as SMS text messages, fraudulently telling recipients that they have been exposed to the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

In a tweet, the NHS said that it had seen reports of text messages that claimed to come from the NHS, telling recipients that they had been in close contact with someone who had a confirmed COVID-19 infection, and that they should order a testing kit.

So, what happens if you do make the mistake of clicking on the link in the bogus text message you have received?

The real NHS website is at nhs.uk, but obviously the scammers dont want you to go there.

Instead, the link sent to you by the scammers takes you to a lookalike website that pretends to belong to the NHS.

To the casual observer it looks very much like the real NHS website. Indeed, on a smartphone you may very well not notice that the domain you have visited is not nhs.uk.

This bogus website wants you to order a test kit, for which you will only have to pay 0.99 for postage.

The real NHS does not distribute free COVID-19 test kits anymore, so the notion that all you have to do to receive a free test is pay 99 pence postage should also ring alarm bells in the victims minds. However, if youve got this far through the scam, chances are that you will also in your panic to get yourself tested for the Omicron variant have forgotten that fact.

Of course, the website doesnt just want your money. It also wants your full name, address, date of birth, and other personal information. If you hand over this information you are unwittingly helping the fraudsters scam you further, by sharing your personal data. At some point in the future, this information could be used against you by a scammer to make them appear even more convincing.

The scammers are using a variety of different domains in their scam messages, many of which have only been created in the last few days.

In its warning the NHS references advice from the NCSC about spotting scams. One would imagine that the NHS is also reporting the scam websites to the NCSC so they can be shut down as quickly as possible, but of course opportunistic scammers will continue to create new domains, and send out more scam messages, for as long as they believe it will help them defraud innocent members of the public.

With so many scams reliant on the use of newly-created websites its a shame that giants like Apple and Google dont do more to warn users that they are clicking on a link to a website which you should probably be more skeptical about than one which has existed for years and years.

And no, it should go without saying, youre not going to receive a free COVID-19 testing kit through the post after handing over your personal information on one of these scam websites.

Editors Note: The opinions expressed in this and other guest author articles are solely those of the contributor, and do not necessarily reflect those of Tripwire, Inc.

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NHS warns of scam COVID-19 text messages | The State of Security - tripwire.com

COVIDThe BA.4 and BA.5 variants have led to increased infections in South Africa and several European countries. The Associated Press

COVID-19 omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 have rapidly increased their prevalence in New England over the past several weeks.

U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) data shows that the subvariants first arrived in New England in mid-April, but started growing exponentially at the end of May.

The data shows that together, the subvariants accounted for about 6.5% of cases at the end of May, before growing to about 12.4% by the end of the first week of June. The subvariants then jumped to account for about 15.4% of cases the next week, and finally reached about 24% at the end of last week.

BA.2.12.1 is still the most prevalent variant in the region and nationally, accounting for 68.3% of infections in New England and 56% nationally, but its possible we could see BA.4 and BA.5 account for an increasing share of cases over the next few weeks, as in other regions of the country.

In an email to Boston.com Wednesday, David Hamer, a professor of global health at Boston University (BU), wrote that BA.4 and BA.5 have many of the same mutations that made the original omicron variant so concerning, but that they also have new mutations that may make them more transmissible.

Hamer said that they have a mutation that may make it easier for them to attach to human cells, and another which may make them better at evading immune responses.

Still, Hamer said, there is no evidence that these variants cause more severe disease, so they are not likely to increase hospitalization rates, except among people who have not been vaccinated or have not had a natural infection.

Matthew Fox, an epidemiologist at BU, agreed with Hamers assessment about transmissibility and the lack of evidence that these variants cause more severe illness, and said they do not seem to have a higher mortality rate than the original omicron variant.

If, however, this version is able to bypass immunity, we could see more infections than in the last wave, and that might lead to more hospitalizations just because the number of people infected is higher, he wrote to Boston.com in an email.

On Wednesday, a study from Harvard University and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that these variants can evade immune responses better than previous variants.

The study found that the BA.4 and BA.5 variants were three times as resistant to neutralizing antibodies than BA.1 and BA.2, which are already much more resistant to neutralizing antibodies than the original COVID-19 virus.

Because of this, the researchers wrote, BA.4 and BA.5 could cause substantial surges even in populations with high vaccination rates and natural immunity to BA.1 and BA.2, though vaccination should still provide protection against severe disease.

Hamer said that based on this new information, he believes there could be a substantial rise in infections in New England this summer or in early fall.

It does cause some concern, Fox wrote. But its also a small sample, so I think we need to wait and see what happens on a population level.

All in all, he said, it is too early to tell what impact BA.4 and BA.5 will have as they grow in prevalence across New England.

Fox and Hamer said BA.4 and BA.5 have been observed in South Africa and several European countries so far. Hamer said these countries have experienced gradual increases in cases due to the new variants, but have not seen large waves of infections.

Fox added that infection rates are usually lower in the summer due to higher temperatures and people going outside more, but said theres really no way to know for sure.

I dont think there is cause for too much concern yet, butI think we should be preparing, he wrote. People should be thinking about what measures they are willing to take should infection rates go up.

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Variants BA.4 and BA.5 are spreading in New England. Heres what you need to know. - Boston.com

Travel to the United States during Covid-19: What you need to know before you go  The Mercury News

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Travel to the United States during Covid-19: What you need to know before you go - The Mercury News

Editor's Note Sign up for Unlocking the World, CNN Travel's weekly newsletter. Get news about destinations opening and closing, inspiration for future adventures, plus the latest in aviation, food and drink, where to stay and other travel developments.

(CNN) The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday updated its travel advisory page for Covid-19. Just two new places, both in Africa, joined the crowded "high" risk category.

But perhaps more notable this week is the news that two destinations in stubbornly high Europe were downgraded to "moderate" risk.

The Scandinavian cultural powerhouse of Sweden and heavily forested and historic Romania in Eastern Europe provide two bright spots on a continent that has been mired in the "high" risk category.

The Level 3 "high" risk category is now the top rung in terms of risk level. Level 2 is considered "moderate" risk. Level 1 is "low" risk.

Level 4, previously the highest risk category, is now reserved only for special circumstances, such as extremely high case counts, emergence of a new variant of concern or health care infrastructure collapse. Under the new system, no destinations have been placed at Level 4 so far.

A herd of elephants is spotted in eastern Botswana. The southern African nation is now at Level 3.

Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

The "Level 3: Covid-19 High" category now applies to places that have had more than 100 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days. The two destinations joining Level 3 this week are:

Botswana Cape Verde

Botswana, a landlocked safari favorite, moved all the way up from Level 1 while Cape Verde, off the west coast of Africa in the North Atlantic, moved up from Level 2.

There were more than 110 destinations at Level 3 on June 21. Level 3 locations account for almost half of the roughly 235 places monitored by the CDC.

More on Level 3

The Eiffel Tower basks in a romantic Paris twilight. France is still at the CDC's Level 3.

Martin Bureau/AFP via Getty Images

Despite the good news on Sweden and Romania, much of Europe has been stubbornly lodged there for months with the summer travel season started. As of June 21, the following popular European destinations were among those remaining at Level 3:

France Germany Greece Ireland Italy The Netherlands Norway Spain United Kingdom

But it's not just European favorites that find themselves at Level 3. Numerous notable travel destinations around the world are among those in the 'high' risk category, including the following:

Brazil Canada Costa Rica Malaysia Mexico South Korea Thailand

Level 2

Biertan is one of the most important Saxon villages with fortified churches in Transylvania, Romania. The Eastern European nation is now at Level 2.

Andrea Ricordi/Moment RF/Getty Images

Destinations carrying the "Level 2: Covid-19 Moderate" designation reported 50 to 100 Covid-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days. Six places in total were moved to this level on Tuesday:

Bolivia Ethiopia Kenya Morocco Romania Sweden

Unlike the two European nations, the move into Level 2 was actually not good news for Bolivia, Kenya and Morocco, which had been at Level 1. (Ethiopia did not appear on last week's roundup).

Level 1

To be in "Level 1: Covid-19 Low," a destination must have had 49 or fewer new cases per 100,000 residents over the past 28 days. Six destinations scattered all around the world were added to the category on June 21:

El Salvador Fiji Guinea Moldova Sint Eustatius Tanzania

The move was particularly good news for the Caribbean's tiny Dutch island of Sint Eustatius, which had been at Level 3.

Last week, El Salvador, Fiji and Moldova had been at Level 2 while Africa's Guinea and Tanzania were "unknown."

Unknown

Finally, there are the destinations the CDC has deemed to be of "unknown" risk because of a lack of information. Usually, but not always, these are small, remote places or places with ongoing warfare or unrest. This week, four places were added to this category:

Bhutan Comoros Democratic Republic of the Congo Ghana

The CDC advises against travel to these places precisely because the risks are unknown. Other destinations in this category include Cambodia, the Canary Islands and Macau.

A medical expert weighs in on risk levels

Transmission rates are just "one guidepost" for travelers' personal risk calculations, according to CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen.

We've moved into "a phase in the pandemic where people need to make their own decisions based on their medical circumstances as well as their risk tolerance when it comes to contracting Covid-19," said Wen, who is an emergency physician and professor of health policy and management at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health.

There are other factors to weigh in addition to transmission rates, according to Wen.

"Another is what precautions are required and followed in the place that you're going and then the third is what are you planning to do once you're there," she said.

"Are you planning to visit a lot of attractions and go to indoor bars? That's very different from you're going somewhere where you're planning to lie on the beach all day and not interact with anyone else. That's very different. Those are very different levels of risk."

Vaccination is the most significant safety factor for travel, since unvaccinated travelers are more likely to become ill and transmit Covid-19 to others, Wen said.

And it's also important to consider what you would do if you end up testing positive away from home.

Top image: Twilight over Riddarholmen Church in Stockholm, Sweden. (K'Nub/Moment RF/Getty Images)

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CDC lowers the Covid-19 travel risk for 2 nations in Europe - CNN

The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) reports as of June 21, 2022, there are currently 1,905 active COVID-19 cases statewide. There has been one death reported since the last report, with a total of 7,018 deaths attributed to COVID-19.

DHHR has confirmed the death of a 79-year old female from Berkeley County.

As we continue the fight against this pandemic, we are saddened by the loss of another West Virginian, said Bill J. Crouch, DHHR Cabinet Secretary. West Virginians believe in taking care of each other, and we must continue keeping the health of our neighbors and friends in mind through prevention including vaccination and booster shots.

CURRENT ACTIVE CASES PER COUNTY: Barbour (14), Berkeley (119), Boone (25), Braxton (18), Brooke (22), Cabell (73), Calhoun (9), Clay (7), Doddridge (2), Fayette (41), Gilmer (11), Grant (14), Greenbrier (50), Hampshire (11), Hancock (14), Hardy (23), Harrison (91), Jackson (20), Jefferson (71), Kanawha (162), Lewis (34), Lincoln (16), Logan (39), Marion (91), Marshall (33), Mason (45), McDowell (22), Mercer (79), Mineral (35), Mingo (12), Monongalia (128), Monroe (26), Morgan (8), Nicholas (22), Ohio (34), Pendleton (3), Pleasants (9), Pocahontas (4), Preston (17), Putnam (51), Raleigh (93), Randolph (25), Ritchie (7), Roane (39), Summers (13), Taylor (17), Tucker (4), Tyler (6), Upshur (26), Wayne (22), Webster (6), Wetzel (24), Wirt (5), Wood (82), Wyoming (31). To find the cumulative cases per county, please visit coronavirus.wv.gov and look on the Cumulative Summary tab which is sortable by county.

West Virginians ages 6 months and older are recommended to get vaccinated against the virus that causes COVID-19. Those 5 years and older should receive a booster shot when due. Second booster shots for those age 50 and over who are 4 months or greater from their first booster are recommended, as well as for younger individuals over 12 years old with serious and chronic health conditions that lead to being considered moderately to severely immunocompromised.

Visit the WV COVID-19 Vaccination Due Date Calculator, a free, online tool that helps individuals figure out when they may be due for a COVID-19 shot, making it easier to stay up-to-date on COVID-19 vaccination. To learn more about COVID-19 vaccines, or to find a vaccine site near you, visit vaccinate.wv.gov or call 1-833-734-0965.

To locate COVID-19 testing near you, please visit https://dhhr.wv.gov/COVID-19/pages/testing.aspx.

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COVID-19 Daily Update 6-21-2022 - West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources

People, wearing protective face masks, walk below the arcades of the Rue de Rivoli in Paris, France, February 11, 2022. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier

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PARIS, June 22 (Reuters) - France is facing a new wave of COVID-19 infections fuelled by new variants of the disease, French vaccination chief Alain Fischer said on Wednesday, as daily new cases reached an almost two-month peak the day before at more than 95,000.

Speaking on France 2 television, he said there was no doubt there was once again an upsurge of the pandemic in the country, adding he was personally in favour of reinstating mandatory face mask wearing on public transport.

"The question is: 'what intensity does this wave have?'" Fischer said.

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Other European countries, especially Portugal, are also seeing an increase, due two new Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, which, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, are likely to become dominant in the region. read more

The variants do not appear to carry a higher risk of severe disease than other forms of Omicron but as they are somewhat more infectious than the latter, it could lead to an increase in hospitalisations and deaths, the ECDC said. read more

There is traditionally a two-week delay between cases and hospitalisation trends and then a similar delay regarding COVID-deaths.

New infections have been steadily rising since the end of May in France, with the seven-day moving average of daily new cases almost tripling between the May 27 figure of 17,705 and Tuesday's 50,402.

That total is nonetheless still seven times lower than the 366,179 record reached at the start of the year.

The number of people hospitalised for the disease fell to a six-month low of 13,876 on Saturday but it has increased by 458 over the last three days, at 14,334, an almost three-week high.

France's COVID death toll rose by 56 over 24 hours on Tuesday, to reach 149,162.

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Reporting by Myriam Rivet and Benoit Van Overstraeten; Editing by William Maclean

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France is facing a new COVID-19 wave - French vaccination chief - Reuters

You may have seen recent media coverage about nine children in Nebraska who fell ill with hepatitis. There has been a fair amount of speculation revolving around the cause of the pediatric hepatitis cases and the possibility of links to COVID-19 or the COVID-19 vaccination. There are conflicting theories about what may cause otherwise healthy children to become severely sick with acute liver inflammation.

"To be honest, we don't have a perfect sense of the rate or causes of this type of disease in kids at baseline. However, It does seem clear that we are seeing an unusual spike in pediatric cases of hepatitis of unknown cause in the last nine months across Europe and North America," says James Lawler, MD, MPH, Nebraska Medicine infectious diseases doctor and co-executive director of the Global Center for Health Security.

Public health investigations are pursuing a number of theories, but we don't yet know what is causing a rise in cases. We need more research before we can draw definitive conclusions. "What is clear, however, is that COVID-19 vaccines are not causing these cases," says Dr. Lawler. Most cases are in children under 5, who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19."

Among theories that are being investigated:

"We can't completely rule out that COVID-19 may play a role in this," says Dr. Lawler. "One plausible theory related to the cause of pediatric hepatitis is prior COVID-19 infection leading to inflammation of the liver, similar to what we see in MIS-C. We think many post-COVID syndromes (long-COVID) may be due to a dysregulated immune response after a COVID infection. Studies consistently show that kids get long-COVID and a myriad of problems after recovering from even mild acute infection. And, we know that most children have had COVID-19 in the last nine months."

We haven't seen a link to COVID-19 vaccination in these cases. There isn't a documented risk of severe liver disease in adults associated with the COVID-19 vaccines, and there is no reason to suspect this connection in kids.

Also, keep this in mind: Most of these particular hepatitis cases are occurring in children under 5 years old. "We're not yet vaccinating children under 5," says Dr. Lawler. "The UK isn't either, and they have the most cases per capita than any country. In fact, nobody in the world has been vaccinating kids under 5."

While every vaccine has potential side effects, the COVID-19 vaccine side-effect profile is well within the bounds of what we consider normal for any vaccine. With almost 12 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines given worldwide over the past 30 months, there's as much legitimate data on these vaccines as any other vaccine given in history. Unfortunately, there has been a lack of education on the risks of COVID-19 on children's health, and why the vaccine is important for them, as well as an incredible amount of misinformation spread online that is simply not based on the facts.

"The COVID-19 vaccine is undoubtedly as safe as any vaccines we use routinely," says Dr. Lawler. "The reality is this: most kids have already had COVID-19 at least once, but there is still a significant risk of reinfection. Prior infection doesn't give highly protective, long-lasting immunity, particularly against new variants. Reinfection, however, carries a risk of post-COVID syndromes, hospitalization or death just like a primary infection. Vaccination guards against this risk and protects family members and the community around children."

A vaccine for kids from 6 months to 5 years old will soon be available.

Read more from the original source:

Are the recent hepatitis cases in kids associated with COVID-19 or the COVID-19 vaccine? - Nebraska Medicine

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) Spinning and floating in the breeze, thousands of pieces of paper tied to clear lines grace the trees outside the building that hosts the Lake Effect Church and Sudanese Grace Episcopal Church in northwest Grand Rapids.

They are weathergrams, a Japanese form of art that typically features haikus on paper left to weather outside. Instead of poetry, these paper strips feature the names of people who died from COVID-19 or suicide during the pandemic.

Artist Donna Kemper came up with the idea for the installation and did the calligraphy for many of the weathergrams herself.

Social media has been so toxic, and there have been so many people who have denied that there is even a pandemic. There have just been so many unkind things posted, she said. I just spent time in prayer and said, What can I do?'

Kemper wanted to represent each person who has died from COVID-19 and came up with the idea of the weathergrams.

People say youll get over grief, but you dont. It changes and it weathers, but it will always be with you. The concept was to remember each person lost because they represent a family, friends, a community. Our nation is grieving and hasnt really had a chance to address that.

Kemper still has people calling her, asking if the installation is up because they want to add names to it. Other artists have submitted many of the strips of paper as well.

The U.S. reached the milestone earlier this year of a million deaths due to COVID-19. Although Kemper does not have a million pieces of paper, she does have nearly 2,000.

To see it actually up and twirling in the wind, its even better than I imagined. Im hoping that people will reconsider the idea that this hasnt been a big deal that visually seeing each piece of paper will affect people by seeing something more visual, rather than just statistics and numbers.

Jack Systema is the pastor at Lake Effect Church and helped Kemper install the strings of paper outside. His congregations share the building with the Sudanese Grace Episcopal Church congregation.

The Rev. Zacharia Char leads that church and has also supported the project.

I feel this is really good. This can be a special prayer that can involve everybody to walk around and have a moment of silence or a moment of prayer about someone we lost. The million people that we lost here in America, said Char.

The installation is outside the church building at 1550 Oswego St. NW in Grand Rapids.

Kemper and the pastors will hold a prayer service to dedicate the installation at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. It is open to the public.

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GR artist honors COVID-19 victims with weathergram installation - WOODTV.com